Facebook Friend Michael Smith:

Americans are “disquieted” because America doesn’t do second place. For the better part of two centuries, America was the place everybody wanted to be, an American was who everyone wanted to be and the world looked to America for leadership from everything – economics, science, law and even for morality. America doesn’t “lead from behind”.

That is why American’s seem lethargic and despondent. We are not a nation of followers, we never have been and the world is suffering because we aren’t leading.

The world is in chaos today for two reasons:

1. There are countries, political systems, and religions in the world that are using the chaos to damage and weaken America. It is to their benefit to keep the instability going as long as possible to do as much damage as possible.

2. American leadership is missing from the world today. Over the past 100 years, global crises were met with definitive American leadership. WWI, WWII, Korea, the defeat of communism at the Berlin Wall, being first at the scene of natural disasters, the eradication of terrorism, the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan, defense of Israel, funding and providing the majority of support for NATO and the UN and providing the lion’s share of funds for the IMF are just a few examples.

Where are we today?

Leading from behind.

This is not a fad; it is an ethos within the Democrat Party and the “progressive” movement. The epitome of this ethos is the confusion, the moral relativism and the cultural equivocation of the Obama administration.

There are people who are cheering for America to be just another country, one country among many; America is not that special – we have no “right” to lead due to what they classify as past “sins” of imperialism, colonialism, etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum. They actively devalue American citizenship through allowing illegal aliens the same rights as American citizens. They diminish traditional American values by teaching our children that the values of our grandparents are illegitimate, even though it was those values that got generations through hardships unimaginable to the dilettantes of today’s aociety. They see the world as a kindergarten class lining up for lunch and it is someone else’s turn to lead the line to the lunchroom – little Johnny was head of the line yesterday, now it is Suzie’s turn…

Well, it isn’t working and the American people feel it. No, it is more than that – they know it. So does the rest of the world.

Why? Because the world needs America to lead. No other country on earth has had the run we have had. No other country has been willing to get into a fight over the principles of freedom and liberty – and do so not just for ourselves but for others. The cries of American hegemony and imperialism fall on deaf ears for one good reason – we don’t keep what we kill.

I was on the beaches of Normandy a few years ago and at the American Cemetery there, there is a quote from General Mark W. Clark inscribed on the wall of the museum that says:

“If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not for conquest, it could be found in these cemeteries. Here was our only conquest: all we asked was enough soil in which to bury our gallant dead.”

America can recapture our leadership position but to do so, the navel gazing cowards in our political system have to go. They must be challenged. I know there are Americans out there who believe this, who believe in heroes and the righteousness of our country. I know because these are the people who flocked to see American Sniper.

It is time for us to honor the values and moral certitude of men like Chris Kyle and those of the Greatest Generation who ran through a maelstrom of flying lead and shrapnel across those beaches in France. Be principled. Stand up to the progressive bullies. Speak, write and above all – vote. Politics isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but we all drink from the same teapot, so do what you can…we can begin again to be that shining city on the hill Ronald Reagan spoke so reverently of.